peter

It's not common to dive into the night as shrouded in mystery and envisioned in realism as much as this one. The time of this dream spanned days on end, but in a way I have never seen before. The people in my dream knew I was dreaming, and were aware that little time has passed in the waking world, and I woke up grateful to be able to tell the story.

I hope the text below will find a place in your heart so that—maybe—it will touch you as much as it touched me. I will try my best, let's get to it.

Somewhere early in the morning I woke up to go to the bathroom. I did not look at the time, as I wanted to sleep a bit more, and the fear of being awake 1 hour before my alarm would keep me up.

I did realize, though, that it was somewhere around 5, as early dawn was already shining through the curtains.

Without thinking much, I went to bed again, and that's when it happened.

From here we dive into the dream world.

---

It all begins with me being inside the house. Nothing really happened, I was just in my bedroom. It was light outside, somewhere early noon.

I sat on the edge of my bed, and realized that I was dreaming, and quickly recalled that I wanted turn into my dragon again.

Before I could even get up, my sister was in the door opening. But something was strange about her, she wore a very beautiful white dress. In hindsight, maybe she wasn't my sister, but she looked like her a lot.

“Do you know about the 'School for people connected to anything non-human?'”, she asked without introducing herself. She was leaning against the edge of door opening, looking confidently at me.

“That's not really a catchy name, is it?”, I said back with a grin.

“… But, no, thanks, I'm not interested in a shrink. I don't need to be fixed, I know I'm dealing with hard fantasy and that I need to be careful not to get too hung up on it, or I lose touch with reality.”, I added, clearly not interested in what she has to say.

“You're not listening to me. It's a school for people connected to anything non-human, they're not out to fix you, they're out to improve your skill”, she replied with an undertone of annoyance.

“Are you someone who finds it difficult to be in a human body?”, she asked me. “No, I'm fine being in my human body, for me there's no difference between being a dragon or a human, both feel good to me”, I replied.

A pause followed, and after an awkward silence, I broke it: “Does that mean this school is not for me?”

“The school is for everyone who has some connection to the non-human, and we enroll everyone who fits that profile, spiritual or otherwise,” she replied.

“Hmm, it's worth the shot, can I bring my boyfriend? He might love this!” I replied, slightly uncertain, but since it aligned with my goals, I was ok with it.

As if the channel on the TV changed with the click of a button, I find myself in this… large forest. A huge clearing in the middle housed 2 large compounds: The first was a modern looking building, it was white, its architecture drawing a lot from the Science Museum in Valencia. The main difference was that a large portion appears to go underground.

The second compound was a fair, a large amount of attractions seemed to stretch as far as the eye can see, though it seemed closed, and I did not pay much attention to it. However, the closest attraction was bumper cars and a snack stand.

It was clear the modern building was the school that really needed a rebranding.

I walked inside, my bf was already at the reception with his suitcase.

The inside was nothing short of breathtaking! Giant windows going all the way up to the ceiling gifted the visitor magnificent forest views and natural lighting.

The modern interior was made such that it was not bothering at all, it was not contradicting, but augmenting the nature outside, drawing some of that good vibes inside the building. Whoever built this place must have had a mind of his own, there's no way I could come up with this.

Sure, I could have put modern furniture inside a building and make a view to nature outside, but to make it look and feel good? That's a different story. How this ended up in my dream? It's almost magic!

I greeted my bf and the looked at the receptionist. She began to say joyfully:

Welcome! We have a few rules around here:

• Bed time is at 22:00, you don't have to sleep already, but everyone is expected to be in their rooms by then.
• After 22:00, you have to be silent
• Breakfast is from 05:00 to 11:00

… I paused for a second. “Breakfast from 05:00 to 11:00?! The most luxurious hotels I stayed at didn't offer such flexible breakfast times!”

The lady at the reception chuckled. “Our students have hugely varying sleep schedules, we try to accommodate.”

“Oh, you must like this,” I told my bf, who often sleeps late, jokingly.

“B-but bedtime?!” I asked… “You're serious? We have to spend the night here”.

The receptionist looked at me again and nodded. “Don't worry, we got that covered”, what this meant I did not know, but I'll soon find out…

“Alright,” I said confidently. “Can I get a room with my bf?”.

“We'll guide you to your accommodation.”

We arrived in a room with 4 single-person beds, showing that we were supposed to get roommates at a later point.

“Great, separate beds, that's nice because you move around a lot,” I told my bf jokingly.

The rooms weren't big, aside from the 4 beds, there was a plank above each bed to put personal belongings on and a single, shared desk and chair.

It didn't look entirely depressing, though, with the forest view still outside.

We took some time to get our stuff out. There was a third person going in who wore a tail, he was quite silent, and looked much smaller than we were.

I don't recall ever speaking to him despite becoming roommates.

What happened next was that at some point we began sleeping, I was trying to sleep early while my bf was at the desk playing on his phone, as quiet as he could.

It was pitch dark outside, as was inside, save for the dim light from his phone.

The next morning, I walked outside our bedroom and saw some crew of the school sitting at a table inside. Breakfast was inside due to the cold weather.

After breakfast, we were told to play in the forest to “get to know each other and our inner self”, I must admit, being close to nature helps to connect with mother earth, not just in dreams, but in reality too…

The way people, both adults and children, were playing, was quite unique. They were pretending to be animals. One guy was running on all fours like Wolverine.

They all did this with no shame or fear of judgement, it was kind of beautiful to see people in all shapes and sizes, and every background be able to be themselves.

But I was not playing along.

At some point, though, I did try to do the “running on all-fours trick” but it didn't go as well as I thought, it even hurt to do it, and I gave up.

“Why are you not playing along?” a girl, who I don't know was a teacher or a student.

“I don't mind them doing this, but, it's not really my thing. I rather connect with my dragon in different ways you know?”

A couple of nights pass, at the third night, the weather was good enough to eat breakfast at the tables set outside. The building extended with white tents made of a some fabric I have never seen before, held up by wooden poles.

I sat next to the kid with the tail whom I shared the room with. “Aren't you worried about the whole sleeping arrangement here? I counted, and we have been here 3 days, and the only lesson we had so far is playing around in a forest! How are we sure we're not missed in the real world?”, I asked him hopefully, as at this point, it started to feel very real. So real, I feared I was no longer where I should be.

The kid for the first time turned to me and answered: “Don't worry, only a few minutes in real life have passed”.

“Y-you sure? How do you know?!”, I was kind of struck that someone in a dream is aware it was a dream and gives clear explanations.

The kid no longer spoke and continued eating.

I went to grab something for myself and went back to being a loner in the forest while others began playing. Most of my time was staring a large tree that was in the middle of the clearing.

At this point, I counted 7 days, and I was beginning to get bored. What is this school really? And why don't we get any theory on dragon anatomy or something. You know? Anything important when letting magical creatures embody you! I'm not the only crazy dude out here, I'm sure, I saw a werewolf walking around. Sure, he must want to know more, too!

It was another evening, it was before 22:00 so we were allowed to make a sound. My bf was sitting at the desk as I walked outside the bedroom.

Near the reception there is a table and a small kitchen, a group of people, who I presume were the “teachers” were sitting there.

“Hey…” I spoke to the youngest lady, my guess is around her 20s, and looked kinda cute. “Whatcha all doing here?”

“We're doing the transfer, the shift of some teachers ended, and we are discussing the progress of each our students, so the new crew can take over smoothly,” she replied.

“Progress.”, I shrugged with my arms crossed. “This is the longest and most realistic dream I had in my entire life, and believe me, I have never been able to count the nights I spent in a dream! I share a room with an autistic kid wearing a tail (no offense I'm autistic myself) who despite being silent is somehow the most helpful of all, my bf doesn't seem to care just lives day by day, how exactly is this progress?!”

The teacher didn't seem to flinch or be offended at all. “Peter… What you are doing here is far more meaningful than you think. We have something planned for you tomorrow”.

“Finally!” I thought. “Some action!”

I went back to my bedroom, where nothing had changed. The kid with the tail was sleeping early (he wakes up really early around 06:00) and my bf was still playing on his phone.

I felt somehow that tomorrow something big would happen, and the excitement made it difficult for me to fall asleep.

This time, the day did not start as usual… I remembered falling asleep as I was talking to my bf (who goes to bed very late), I even remember we had to whisper due to the 22:00 rule.

We woke up way too late, at 11:00. “FUCK RUBEN WAKE UP WE MISSED BREAKFAST!” I shook him awake, and he gathered his clothes and put them on as we ran outside.

All that was left was a half a piece of bread and some crumbs. The kid with the tail was still sitting there, looking at us with questioning eyes. I could've strangled him at this point because he could've woken us up. I … didn't, maybe he thought we wanted to sleep longer, and forgo breakfast.

“There's a small food stand at the fair,” Ruben told me. “Yeah there is, but I don't want sugary junk food for breakfast, I need something healthy to kickstart my brain you know…”, I replied to him. And truth be told, the food was quite good at the school.

I walked to one of the ladies, who I don't know was a teacher or a student, I asked her: “Hey do you know where we can still get breakfast?”.

“The nearest town with a bakery is miles away, you'll never make it on time.” she said.

“Not as human…,” I said…

“You can…” “Yes,” I interrupted her. “Like a true mage, I can shape-shift, in a dragon.”

“That's quite cool, can I see it?”

“Yes, let's go somewhere more private with a good runway.”, I replied, wanting to find a spot less covered by treetops.

We walked for about 10 minutes into the forest, where we arrived at a river with a red bridge.

“This is perfect,” I told her.

I began to stand at the edge of the bridge, the sun was shining in my back, and it reflected my shadow on the water.

I started to shape-shift like I always do: Spreading my arms, and looking forward or at my shadow and think of my inner dragon.

“Wait!”, I heard from behind me. It was the girl. She said: “You want to become better at this right? To know more about your roots? To see into the past think you've never lived?”

I was stunned! “Y-yes! I actually forgot about that! I mean, I am lucid, but I only remember wanting to turn into my dragon, not that I wanted to know more about how this all somehow blended into my life! How did you know?”

“How I know is not important, all that is important is that we are here to help. Now, stand straight up, look forward, and close your eyes”.

I ignored her instructions: “Please, this is not how I normally do this, I typically focus on getting bigger, feeling the strength of my bigger dragon muscles, the weight of the wings and tail, and it always works, I'm afraid closing my eyes will destroy or destabilize this dream.”

“Trust me, it will be ok,” she said without a hint of offense from my doubt about her.

“O-ok,” I stuttered nervously. The girl stood behind me, and I let her voice be my guide.

“Close your eyes”

I slowly did close them, the vision of the river turned black in front of my closed eyes. Damn, this part was so real, when writing it down, it feels like I'm right there again!

“It's so scary to do this in a dream”, I mumbled.

“Being scared is natural, don't let fear be your weakness! Use it! How can you feel like a real dragon without feeling like a real human first?”

I gave myself fully over to her skills, it was so scary, more than you can possibly imagine. But her words, her support, her guiding voice, it was all that I needed to get through it.

“Now, I want you to go back to the moment you first met your dragon”, she added in a calm voice.

“That's easy” I said. “That's during a shamanic jour-” she interrupted me: “No, further…”

“I don't know what that mean-” I got interrupted again as I suddenly saw a vision of me being with my dragon. The vision was dim, and lacked color. It was entirely in black and white, as if lived through someone else's eyes who couldn't see color.

I saw my dragon and me being in some kind of place that reflected a lot of white, it could have been a forest, because it looked like leafs shown through an infrared camera. Not much happened, it seemed we were laying down and eating fruits, and sharing them with each other.

It hit me so hard, I get goosebumps all over my body just writing this. Even if nobody reads this, I'm so glad that I have taken the time to write this, I don't know what it means for me, but it made the best discovery in my life even better.

“Ok, open your eyes now!”, the voice of the girl said.

I did as instructed, kind of relieved I could turn this back to normal.

But it wasn't.

The world was exactly the same, but the shadow that laid before me, was my dragon, and not just that. It was there without any effort!

“Woooow!” I screamed! I looked at my hand, which now were full-blown dragon claws, and they didn't just look like them, they felt like claws too. When I clenched my fist, it felt… different, non-human.

“Wow, normally I have to shape-shift multiple times and even then it doesn't work this well!” I had tears in my eyes of joy as I jumped around feeling my hind claws hit the wood of the bridge. During the entire ordeal my shadow stayed consistent too!

I never thought my experience being a dragon could be elevated to a higher standard of immersion.

But this? This changed the game. I wasn't merely looking like the dragon anymore, I was being one — and had absolutely no trouble keeping it up either. I have no other words to describe it. It was like I left a piece of myself behind and gained another the second I opened my eyes.

“Thank you so much…” I told her.

“W-would you want some breakfast from the city?”, I asked her.

“Nah, I'm good. You go have fun!”

I didn't let her say that twice, I immediately spread my wings and jumped off the bridge!

“WOO-HOO!” I screamed as I flew over the river, higher and higher. “This is awesoooome!!!”

I kept going faster and faster, I looked down for one second seeing the students playing below me when suddenly… BANG! Followed by a huge pain in my dragon skull.

The camera pans quickly to the ground and as if a connection got severed, I ended up on the ground, as a human, with my dragon body loosely hanging in the tallest pine tree in the fucking forest!

“Out of all places, I hit this one tree, great...” I said annoyed.

A kid came running at me. “Do you want a popsicle? I was asked by the teachers to offer everyone one popsicle!”

“Really?”, I asked with a smirk. “And you will deliver them no matter the cost?”

“Yes, I try to be the best help I can be!”

“Ok, well, there's a dragon in the pine tree up there, he wants a popsicle!”

I hoped that this lucid dreaming trick will make the kid return the dragon to me, as its easier to get the dragon down than to climb up the tree, in an attempt to restore the connection.

---

I woke up, and through the curtains, it was exactly as light as it was when I went to sleep again.

“Oh, my god. This can't be happening, barely any time passed. They were right…”

Now I'm sitting here, having had perhaps one of the most vivid transformation dreams in my entire life. Even writing it down brings up the feelings to a level comparable to… still being in that dream.

I know I'm on thin ice when it comes to bringing dreams into the real world, but what happened is almost impossible to ignore, or seek some form of greater explanation. Either way, it was enjoyable to the last minute, and I would do it all over again if I could. Thank you, whoever designed this dream.

I have a busy week, and I wanted to have the best sleep I could have… It wasn't just my wish — was imperative that my sleep was as good as I dared to imagine to make sure I would perform equally well at work .

Forgive me for the sudden turn to spirituality, this is not important for the dream that soon follows, but its part of how I got it. Feel free to scroll past it if you don't like that kind of stuff.

During a meditation in a warm shower, I went to ask my spirit animal — the same dragon I would later turn into at night: “What do I have to do to get the best sleep I can have?”

Notice that I didn't ask to turn into this dragon, even though that's really what I wanted, to fly, to do epic things that I could normally not do. The book “The way of the Shaman” by Michael Harner taught me that it is discouraged to put your spirit animal in a position it might not wish to be in. It is better to let “it” come with what is best for you, and your task as a shaman primarily revolves around maintaining and fostering communication.

During my meditation, I saw a hollow tree with purple crystals inside boxes as well as laid out on a table. I had no idea what it meant, but before going to be shortly after the shower, I slept thinking about those crystals.

With the rather unusual origin out of the way, lets dive into the dream space…

---

Immediately as I began drifting away, I was aware I was dreaming, and the desire to transform into a dragon came up instantly.

There were 3 dreams, all of which featured transformation, and all were in daylight. The first dream happened on a road around 2 minutes walking away from my house.

The second dream happened in the park nearby.

The third dream happened on a beautiful blue beach with crystal clear water and a gorgeous blue tone to it.

In the first dream, I began to focus on transforming into my dragon. After about 3 attempts, it was successful, I felt my human legs turning into Draconian hind legs, becoming bigger, lifting my field of vision as I looked forward and let it happen.

But there was one more thing that overlapped all three dreams — A child was watching. A different child in each dream. And clearly, the 3 children were entertained by me.

In the first dream I don't remember what the child look like or the gender, as I kept it in the corner of my eyes. It was there before I transformed, and didn't interfere, it was just playing on the street, but began rooting for me as I turned.

What was so strange about this… peculiarity… was that the children were not annoying at all. At first, I wanted to move to spot away from them, but realizing they weren't interfering with my dream goals, I let them be, thinking it is better not to waste any time.

After flying a bit, the dream shifts to the second dream, where I was in the park, somehow, I got stuck in some random, confusing hallway. It was made of the trees that grew in the park, and had square holes for windows, that let in natural light.

I tried to find the exit to get back into the park, but couldn't find it. Eventually, I decided to just fly out the window and enjoy the flight. Another child was cheering on the floor as it saw me.

The third dream started happening soon after, which was at this beach, nothing short of breathtaking! Large mountains were scattered across the water, giving me lots of places to land and discover.

A child, a boy, the first I actually laid my eyes on, was swimming in the sea with a little pool float. He was looking up at me and cheering just like the other children.

I decided to do a little trick at the end of some flying, which this dragon only can do near water (his scales turn water into oxygen and hydrogen to create a fuel for supersonic flight as well as breathing underwater).

I quickly picked up the pace, and managed to fly supersonic for the second time in my life — and it was amazing: seeing things sifting by so fast it isn't even a blur, it's literally a huge line of washed out colors. To go so fast, that don't even hear your own sonic boom… I get goosebumps writing this…

The last thing I remember as I woke up, was that I heard the third child saying “woooow so fast” followed by some giggling.

---

This whole set of dreams, it felt like it wasn't mine, like I was part of the decor for the children's dreams, to cheer them up. It is wonderful to think that maybe somewhere 3 children had a really great sleep because of me.

Of course, this is likely more false than true, it is still a nice thought. And I'm grateful for the night I've been given. Work went great too :D

Last night was one of those crazy nights, where nothing is what it seems.

My boyfriend arrived over the holidays, and thus I no longer sleep alone, this is important later in the story.

---

It all started with the first dream I had, which was yet another school anxiety dream (the third time in a row) I will not elaborate on as it is simply too boring.

I woke up from this dream as my bf has the tendency to shake in his sleep…

Sad that I dreamed once again about school, I was hellbent on at least having some other adventure.

Whilst awake, I started thinking how I'd “fix” this dream to steer it in another direction if I were lucid. Simply closing my eyes and running through a wall towards my goal would've done it.

I drifted away on my thoughts as I started to fall asleep again, this time, I ended up in my house — though in the strangest way my mind allowed me to imagine.

The interior was back in the past, dated somewhere between 2007-2009. But outside the house was a very strange dimension — it was full of geometric shapes, colorful pathways and hills. The sky was pink, and the clouds were fixed in the air and did not move.

My mom and I were both downstairs when a letter arrived in the mail. I grabbed a piece of paper that had no envelope and unfolded it — immediately, it piqued my interest.

On the top of the paper, it read “MTES-1”, followed by “A standardized test for learning a single spell”.

The rest of the paper talked about that the lessons were about to start and that you can join if you wanted to.

With the paper in my hand, I said, “Mom I have to go get some stuff”, which was obviously a lie, but it was to talk my way out of the house…

The strangest thing happened, my mom rushed to the front door and stopped me from getting out.

“Why don't you let me go,” I asked. “I'm only going to get a few things”, I persisted the lie.

“You're not learning that, it is way too dangerous for you…!”, my mom exclaimed while guarding the front door.

I was shocked! For a moment, she didn't seem like my mom, she did look the same, but had an entirely different character, as if something that is making the dreams decided to step out of character to protect something secret…

Another thing that shocked me was that she knew I was lying, something that never happened before in a lucid dream.

I tried to get out, but it didn't work, “she” really kept the door shut. At some point, I had another dream where instead I decided to make the paper reappear and take it from there. Sadly, once I made the paper appear in my hand again, it was different, now it was more like a contract. It still had the same kind of information, but now there was a list of ingredients one had to bring before going to the lesson (there were 2, but I don't recall which ones that were), and one had to pay 2300 euros upfront, not exactly the inviting deal I got before.

Aside from not being able to work, it was really eerie to see dream characters turn 180 degrees and seemingly behave as if a puppet master is stepping in to correct things.

Somehow that is what made me grateful of this dream, the challenge, the feelings, it got me thinking, though I will likely try to get my hands on the first letter again in some dream later!

I just woke up from this and writing it down now.

At first, I didn't really know where I was - there was just a large room with people talking to each other much like any other conference.

Everything was so realistic, so lifelike, the noise, the people. None of them I knew..

I remember that there was a huge carpet, looking down, it read: "TCAC".

"Oh fuck that's that anti mining thing!" I quickly thought to myself. Being a cryptobro inside a room full of people so fed up with it, I better try to fit in! While I'm fully against the way mining happened right now and support the need for change. Im autistic, what that constant noise would do to me is unimaginable. I'd totally be on their side.

Yet, I do not fully disapprove of crypto, this alone made me feel rather out of place, perhaps even unsafe.

"Can I have your attention please!", an American accent screamed across the room as light faded.

A older projector was being started up. A small flicker soon became a larger picture on a white canvas. Everyone was silent as a shirt movie began to play.

The movie began with a voice that told about how things were before "'they' entered Texas" people were cheering and a happy music was selected for the background of this fragment.

Later, the movie faded into the dark side where the huge mining facilities were constantly shown along with the large noise they made.

I remember standing there amongst the crowd watching it like any other person in the room, it felt so awkward, even though I agreed with it. It felt like I shouldn't be there. This sense of nervousness remained throughout the dream and the video that was shown...

This was where the dream ended.

I dreamed that I was part of some diplomacy group that had first contact with an alien race.

It was a very special event, as the first interspecies marriage took place! For the first time in history, a man from earth would marry a female from that alien race.

I was aboard a spaceship bound for “their planet” as part of the human side of the crew, though the dream never really explained where their planet is or what it was called. There were only 2 passengers—the recently engaged couple.

There was an equal amount of human and alien crew on board, perhaps a way to signify equality among species, though the spaceship belonged to the aliens, as was evident by its Sci-fi, UFO-like design.

Though never explained in the dream, my responsibility was to oversee human-alien communications and address any language or cultural barriers that may appear. My job was to stay as neutral as possible, not really a skill I consider myself particularly adequate in. Yet, out of billions of people on Earth, I was elected for this heavy but honorable task. I got to experience history in the making first-hand, while I didn't feel I deserved it, I was certainly excited for this.

However, as time passed, and our distance between their planet and our ship ever decreasing, the rituals became increasingly uncomfortable for me to watch.

Apparently, it is normal for the aliens bathe the female with a large group standing around the tub while singing a monotonous kind of song.

I tried not to look as she was undressed, I really didn't want to know how she looked! But my eyes kind of automatically went towards her as she was undressed by the large group. She had 6 boobs.

I couldn't help but feel really uncomfortable by this, and I tried to force myself to stay neutral, but damn…

The dream proceeded to pan the camera towards washing those boobs being washed in a very, very slow motion with extremely high detail. As if it was sensing what made me uncomfortable and showed me more of it!

---

Immediately the dream progressed into me working at a hospital for sick children, a group of clowns came in to entertain the children.

They started doing crafts with the children with this kind of stuff:

It was after they were done that the clowns began to have a devious grin and began strangling the children with the wires, they were so fast, that the knots they made were difficult to remove in the little time they had to strangle every single one of them at once. It felt so organized because every clown took on another kid.

I ran towards a girl and managed to save her, but barely. As she was gasping for breath, all other children already died.

It was one of the darkest nightmares I had in a long time, perhaps forever, as I can't imagine anything darker I have dreamed before...

The dream starts with me being called by my accountant. Her voice was firm and serious, "We need to talk about your finances. You're approaching a threshold that will put you in a higher tax bracket. If you don't spend 2500 euros, you'll end up paying a significant amount more in taxes."

Naturally, I was unsure of what to do. At the end of the call, she reassured me that it was a one-time expense and that I could use it to buy anything I wanted.

What could I possibly buy with 2500 euros? I didn't need anything, and I certainly didn't want to waste the money. But the accountant's words echoed in my mind - I had to spend it. It had to be an expense.

In a moment of naivety, and my mind surprisingly clouded, I walked into the Apple Store and asked for the latest and most expensive iPhone there was. I hesitated for a moment, but then handed over my credit card. I couldn't believe I was doing this - I've never been a fan of iPhones. In fact, I've always preferred rugged Android phones.

As I left the store with the iPhone still in its box, fully sealed, I couldn't shake off the feeling that I'd made a huge mistake. What was I thinking? This phone was the opposite of what I wanted. It was sleek and fragile, not rugged and durable like my usual phones.

As I walked away from the store, my mind started racing. I thought about all the things that could go wrong with this phone. I'd need to buy a case to protect it, and even then, I'd have to be extra careful not to scratch or drop it. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this purchase didn't make sense.

Just then, my Apple Fanboy friend texted me, "See, I knew you'd get an iPhone at some point!" I chuckled to myself, thinking, "If only you knew it's still in the box, fully sealed." I didn't bother responding, though, I was too busy trying to process my impulsive purchase.

As the day went on, I couldn't shake off the feeling of buyer's remorse. I kept thinking about all the other things I could have bought with that money. Finally, I decided to take action. I walked back into the Apple Store, iPhone still in its box with the plastic seal around it, where the dream ended with me asking if they would give full refunds on fully sealed iPhones.

This picture is based on a irl photo, so its almost as if we took a trip through the looking glass, and ended up in a fantasy world, changing into our characters

Last night was a crazy ensemble of mystery, magic, lively characters, pure luxury high class dreaming, attention to detail you normally only see in the fanciest of places! And it all started very normal. Let's dive into the dream space!

---

I am standing on a platform at train station Haarlem Centraal, Netherlands. Trains came and went. When I look around, I see people standing, waiting to catch the next train. Looking up, a digital sign said: “Groningen”. The next train went to Groningen, it actually sounds pretty nice, so I wanted to go there.

As I'm reaching into my left pocket, I notice I have my phone with me. I turned it on, and it was open on the Contacts app. On the top of the list, there was a peculiar person I never heard of before: Ben. I decided to give Ben a call.

A robotic voice made itself audible on the speaker. The robotic voice said: “Hi, I'm Ben! A dream AI. I can change any dream for you just the way you like it.”

“Anything?”, I ask. “We do anything for our customers. Your deepest desires, your wildest wishes and your greatest adventures come true. With Ben, you are 100% in control”.

Eager to test that theory, realizing as I was getting lucid — I'm not just anybody! I'm not going to stand here and wait for public transport like normal citizens do! I want a private train!

And so I speak my wishes in a clear English voice to Ben on my phone. No reply. Ben wasn't saying a word.

But something is changing… Looking up at the sign, it starts to flicker, as if someone is hacking into the sign in my dream, and quickly, the sign updated, saying: “Do not board — Private train”.

Not long after, I hear the train rolling into view — and my dragons — was it a marvel to behold, easily 100 cars long. The entire exterior is a silvery white train with red stripes on it. The red stripes are made from precisely cut ruby that is so thin and so flat that it surprises me it doesn't chip or crack. Surrounding the ruby stripes was chrome lining that holds everything together.

It looks shiny and beautiful, modern yet classical, drawing its inspiration from late 80s diners in the United States, along with Sci-fi elements from “Snowpiercer” and “Hunger Games — Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”.

What really strikes me at this point is that, this all feels man-made. Engineered. My fantasy doesn't extend to these exquisite tastes without much research beforehand. And yet, that initial fear of the unknown made it all the more tantalizing to step in and roll the fast-lane of the dream world.

The car at the front opens its door, and to my surprise, nobody of the crowd steps in, automatically obeying what the sign says. In a split second, Ben had changed the normal aesthetic of a public train station into a capitalist class-divided private railroad for the ultra-rich to get their own private trains. In real life I'd hate this, but now I couldn't care less!

I got inside the train at the front, just before the conductors' car. The first cabin is relatively simple. It has a few chairs, tables that's it. Nothing too shabby. Each car has the same silvery white colour as the exterior, separated by red doors, mimicking the ruby stripes.

For the first time since my command, the AI spoke again: it said the train would be departing soon, but that I'm allowed to explore the train as I wish.

So, I go into the next car — and this one is a freaking tennis court! It was absolutely insane. There even is a small place for people to watch the game!

I walk into the next car — this seems to be a little restaurant, and quickly becoming my favourite car!

Stockpiles of candy and snacks and everything laid for people to grab for free!

There are Maltesers, Snickers, Bounty, and variations of it all!

Sitting on the floor (as the cabin where the candy was held was quite low), I start munching on everything. And I mean, everything!

I started eating the whole supply, there is even white Maltesers, and oh my god, they tasted so good.

Throughout this feast, I keep thinking of how grateful I am that it feels so real, the taste, the crunch, the feeling of getting full… My synapses are firing like crazy at this point to make this taste so real.

After the entire bar is emptied, and I feel almost like puking, I walk into the next car, this one is a literal petting zoo! It has a cow behind a small fence, and some chicken above in a cage.

It was an absolute monster of a train, and it just kept going, and going, and going! Everything stayed so consistent. I could always find my way back to the first cabin and I could even look at the screens inside the train and see how fast we are going.

I could look outside and see biomes consistent of that with the Netherlands… But something happened along the way. The more and more I drove towards Groningen. I started noticing that there are other people around, too.

First just a few, but later on, it starts to become more and more. And I began to ask myself: Where do these people come from?

This was intense and at this point I am a little annoyed because they weren't supposed to get on. We didn't stop in front of a station, so they couldn't have got on in the first place.

At some point, I even see my family. My mom and my sister… I ask my mom: “how did you get in?”

And she tells me that she doesn't know, but she is very happy to be here, there are so many things to do, and it is so special to spend time together with us on this train. I actually feel a little emphatic. Yeah, this could be special, let's ride it out!

I walked also towards other people, strangers… They say they are lucid dreamers and that they wanted the private train. But for some reason, the private train, was the same train for all of us.

I guess the AI made a mistake and thought that this train was the private train and just gave it to every lucid dreamer out there. I don't know, but the whole thing felt almost spiritual because all of these people, felt real. It added life to the scene. I see people hanging out in the restaurant car — just talking to each other about completely random subjects, relaxing. You know, just taking a cup of coffee or something. The train, the engineering, the people, everything was alive. It was so real.

It is even more alive than that. To each other and to me, these people were strangers at first. But riding this out together, starts to feel like days as time begins to drift. We began closing in on each other, some strangers became friends, and the friend groups started doing things together having activities. And the kids started patting the cow together.

Couple of more days in, people start setting up shops together, and they start making their own things. From just a means of luxury transportation it soon shifted into a meters long artist hub. And slowly, but surely, as the days pass, it becomes a city on rails. There are kids playing and everyone knows each other.

It is a crazy experience to see all this unfold, a life intermingled and yet so different all having their own characters and their own clothing, their own movements. Everything. Just… oh… it fell into place in this one thing.

And then I start to feel that I am going to wake up… Being so attached to this place. I don't want to just leave without saying goodbye. So, I walk to the front of the train, to the conductor. Strangely enough, no human is driving the train. In front of me there is a desk with nothing but a single microphone and a button. I activate the microphone to make an announcement.

A jingle starts playing, the same one as in Snowpiercer. I started having my speech, and I remember exactly what I said. It was that I was very happy to be here, and that sadly, it is my time to go, and I hoped that everyone remembers everything.

I let go of the mic and I walk back into the other cars, by now, things have so heavily evolved we have plants growing in every car, mostly food to eat.

But I didn't quite hear anything on the speakers when I made the announcement, so I ask random people if they heard the passenger announcement, but they all reply: “no we didn't hear anything”. So I guess that the microphone didn't work.

I then walk up to my mom. She is playing around with my nephews and nieces in a makeshift playground someone made. I tell her that I really loved everything about it and I hope that she remembers everything, but I am afraid that she won't remember anything. She asked if I will remember anything, and my answer was yes.

I explain to them that them forgetting, but me remembering is some kind of protection mechanism. To make sure that no strange, spiritual secrets about mysterious worlds reveal themselves. Yet that these people like my mum can still feel the positive vibes. Still, a really strange thing to say, but it was how I interpreted it at the time.

I walk back into the other coaches and say goodbye to a few other people that mattered the most to me here since there was no way I could say goodbye to everyone.

---

I woke up with full closure.

Once I got up, I realized I hit snooze on my alarm clock for maybe about 20 minutes. Which means that this whole thing happened in just 20 minutes. Possibly even less because I wouldn't sleep right away.

And that felt kind of crazy.

My lucid dreaming goal for tonight was to go into outer space and meet up with a highly advanced alien civilization.

As I fell into a slumber, I started to fly around in the city that I know as Rotterdam. I recognized the city because of its memorable bridge. It was all so real — I could feel the water splashing around me as I sifted over the canal.

Suddenly, I realized my goal of meeting up with the advanced alien civilization. Instead of flying forward, I started to fly upwards. And faster. And faster.

I quickly went into the stratosphere — almost reaching into outer space before I heard my sister calling me all the way back from Earth.

She was screaming at me: “Peter Peter, come back!”. I did as she instructed and when I landed, I asked her what was going on. She told me that I needed to have a spaceship before going into outer space because otherwise it would be too dangerous. I couldn't go with just a human body. I was quite surprised by her reaction, especially given that I was flying already really fast over the waters.

She pointed towards the right and I saw a very small one person spaceship. With a bit of difficulty, I crammed myself into it, closed the door and the spaceship automatically started to fly upwards again.

It didn't take long before finding another planet. It looked very much like the Earth that I knew, but as I closed in on the planet, I already started to notice subtle differences, I just couldn't quite tell what was going on yet.

The spaceship automatically landed in a city that looked very much like Amsterdam. I opened the door and there wasn't really anything going on just yet. But for some reason, my instinct told me to bring an electronic device outside and that's exactly what I did. I took a desk fan outside, it wasn't plugged in. Once I hit the power button, it started working — and that's when I realized: This earths core is a giant Tesla coil.

All the electronic devices, the lights, the cars, everything is working without any power source!

It was quite amazing to see. And my mind started racing over the complications. Even though the world was very similar to ours, the economy and everything else probably had developed very much differently, despite ending up with pretty much the same Innovations as ours. Well, this wasn't the advanced civilization that I was hoping for and rather an earth-like civilization that just got really lucky by discovering power this way. It still was quite interesting to see.

I will likely try to do this again in another lucid dream.

Last night before going to bed, I decided to lucid dream about meeting Richard Feynman.

I have met him before in dreams and I wanted to ask him a question about how to focus better on research.

To this day, Richard Feynman remains one of my biggest Idols in the world of science and physics.

I went to bed about 23:30, and I woke up around 8:30.

And from there, I try to carry out my plans. I fell back asleep, and while the alarm clock was only set for snooze on 10 minutes, during that 10-minute window, I got a lot done.

I suddenly woke up in a strange dark version of my room. And I knew it wasn't the real world and I also knew I only had 10 minutes possibly even less because you don't fall asleep right away.

I didn't think I would make it into the dream world anymore, but here I was, so I decided to make the most of it.

First things first, I needed to make the dream more stable. It was very janky and I couldn't find my balance. I also missed a middle finger when I looked at my hands which didn't scare me at all.

I simply put my hands on the wall and try to feel around as the world became more stable.

After that, I tried to carry out a plan on how to meet Richard Feynman. The first thing I could do was simply calling out for his name while opening random doors. Sadly, no one was there.

"Mr Feynman!" I yelled. "Mr Feynman we have met before..."

The only thing that I encountered was strange versions of our rooms. No one was inside, not even after yelling.

Well, back to my plan, and instead of trying to call out for him, I decided to go to him myself.

I simply closed my eyes and then imagined the last place that I met Richard Feynman.

It was in this strange futuristic white room that also had a garden with more than just Richard Feynman.

That was also Spider-Man. There were some police, docters. Overall, a lot of different kind of people with different roles, all trying to tend to help people in need, especially children.

It was a rather beautiful place. I tried to focus on it again while closing my eyes and walking straight into a wall and I kept going forward.

I did not stop until I hit something that was of any significance and not a big black void.

What I have encountered was a door that once opened I came into this cute little house. It wasn't exactly the place that I thought I would end up in, but there was a woman who said she was familiar with Richard Feynman.

There were a lot of food and pastries on the table. I asked if I could take one and she said that, I once told her that I shouldn't be allowed to get it. So she didn't let me...

I don't remember meeting her before, but she was very, very confident I have met her before, and told her explicitly not to let me take any food.

Well, I guess it is what it is. I asked her about Richard Feynman. I also realized I suddenly wore a jacket and gloves, which she asked if she could take them to hang them on the coat hanger.

By the time I could drop the subject of Richard Feynman, she was already starting to disappear because the alarm clock went off.

But once I woke up, I realized that I did a lot in less than 10 minutes.

So, it begs the question: With more time, can I do it?

I guess Richard was just busy today. I hope to meet him some time again.

Mine was constant night terrors as a child. When I found out I could "exit" a dream at will (waking up physically by moving my hands physically to my eyes, causing me to somehow wake up in real life), I realized: "If I can exit something at will, I must be able to control it at will too".

This kicked off the long journey that I'm still taking.